


A Year in the Life of Officer Snart and Lieutenant Rory

by ChaoticFayth



Series: Flash Rogues: D.A.R.E. AU [2]
Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: 5 + 1, Alternate Universe - High School, DARE Officer Leonard Snart, DARE officer AU, Firefighter Mick Rory, M/M, Roommates, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-10
Updated: 2014-03-10
Packaged: 2018-07-19 06:46:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7350136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChaoticFayth/pseuds/ChaoticFayth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The 5 times Officer Snart almost falls for his roommate and the 1 time he doesn’t. Also known as the 5 times Firefighter Rory flustered his roommate and the 1 time his roommate caved.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Early Spring

**Author's Note:**

> This is super fucking fluffy, I really apologize. I’ve never written something this fluffy in my whole life. Also about two years old now, but I only started putting things from tumblr to AO3 recently.
> 
> DARE Officer AU is the mind-child of ohhicas @ tumblr, I only feed her ideas and random fic for it.

Len knew something was a little off the first time that he and Mick had friction about one of the faculty gatherings. The fact of the matter is that Len couldn’t really care what the faculty does where, as long as he gets to drink to his heart’s content. It’s Mick that wants their house to retain the “party house” reputation. It’s Mick that loves playing host because it gives him a excuse to burn off the extra energy he gets from his actual job in his favorite ways: chatting with interesting people and setting things on fire (mainly food). 

But Len has plans this weekend. The Combines are playing and he wants to sit on the couch in his underwear and drink while he watches the game, not have to entertain a whole bunch of people that he sees every weekday. It’s too much effort and it cuts into his own personal comfort. Mick, however, has been looking forward to this for a couple weeks now. Work has been slow as it can be during the wet Missouri springtime, and he needs something to distract himself. Mick has a ham waiting in the freezer and ingredients for side-dishes freshly bought.

This new round of argument occurs thursday afternoon. Len’s tired, irritable and ready to put his foot down. There are already angry words coming out of his face as he steps into the kitchen, but Mick’s oddly cheerful. Suspiciously cheerful. Len prepares the big “no, this isn’t going to happen” when there’s suddenly a hand tugging on his tie and Mick is way too close. Even though Len’s got 3 inches on his roommate, Mick is a goddamn brick house of a firefighter and there’s no moving out of his grip, even if Len tried. Len’s hands end up on Mick’s shoulders and chest out of instinct–as though his subconscious thinks it needs to push the other man away, but all it ends up doing is putting firm muscle against his palms. 

Mick’s so close that Len can feel the other man’s breath on his face, warm against his lips. There’s a question being posed, Len realizes, and he finds himself nodding before he can actually stop. The firefighter’s face lights up as he gets the answer he wants and finally lets go of his roommate’s tie so that he can continue with his pre-work routine. Len’s left flabbergasted in the kitchen, hands still partially up and wondering just what he’d gotten himself into.


	2. Late Spring

The start of tornado season always marks the point when Mick’s work begins to pick up again. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that he gets to actually do his job. After an unfortunate mishap with a wet ladder that had him landing in someone’s hedges, Mick is out on enforced leave for the rest of the week. It’d be one thing if he could actually do something in his leave, even catch up on a bit of Man vs. Wild, but no.

No, it’s tornado season and the goddamn power is out and Mick is home quite alone. It’s an hour after his usual time when Len finally manages to get home after playing traffic guard for a bunch of parents who acted like they hadn’t been living in tornado alley all their lives. Amateurs, the lot of them. Len’s in full-grumble mode when he comes back to find Mick struggling to tend to the sea of bruises across his back in the half-dark of the living room. Beyond the noise of the thunderstorm outside and the weather radio murmuring on the coffee table, Mick and Len don’t say more than a couple words to each other.

In fact, Mick doesn’t even turn to see the other walk into the house. He just sits on the couch and holds up a bottle of Biofreeze in a silent gesture of surrender. Mick can’t reach all of his purpled back, and Len’s damn near on autopilot as he agrees to assist. It’s not until he’s sitting behind the other man and smoothing his hands down Mick’s bare back that he realizes just how sculpted active-duty firefighters are. The man’s solid, even under all the bruises and knots in his back, and Len’s hands linger, kneading at what knots he can find easily. One particular spot grants Len a noise from Mick that Len’s only ever heard through closed doors at ungodly hours and Len finds himself holding his own lower lip between his teeth and trying to recreate that reaction. What he ends up with is Mick’s hand on his leg and the other man pushing back against his hands, a silent plead for more.

That is, before the lights slowly flicker back on. Mick abruptly pulls away from Len, standing and muttering something about a hot shower before he leaves the room entirely. Len’s hands are still cool from the Biofreeze.


	3. Summer

Summer is the only time that Mick Rory and Len Snart manage to be in the house for long intervals with one another during weekdays. And, due to Mick’s love of warmth, these days typically entail activities in the half-shade of the back yard. Len’s given up trying to be anything but stationary without air conditioner to cool him. This summer is hotter and more humid than the last and Len is miserably slumped in his lawn chair with a beer. He’d rather be inside.

Though if he was inside, he’d miss the view.

And that view was of Mick and a newly obtained Belgian Shepard–a freshly weaned puppy born of the firehouse’s mascot. It’d been a small litter, and the competition to even get a shot at bringing one home had been fierce, but it’s hard to say no to a solid force of man like Mick Rory. Whatever resistance that Len had put up to having a pet in the house crumbled to dust when Mick brought home said puppy, nestled securely in his jacket. A puppy that the firefighter spent most of his off-time playing with in the back yard. 

Currently, the pair of best buds were literally rolling in the grass, an over-excited tongue lapping at Mick’s face. In spite of the heat, Len couldn’t help but to smile. Mick, with a face flushed from the heat and the activity, rolls to his feet and takes the pup with him and Len hadn’t even realized the smile on his own face until he sees it echoed on Mick’s. The man mentions getting ready for his shift, but Len is distracted by the fact that there’s suddenly a dog being placed on his chest–and Mick is gone before Len can even protest. 

Len finds himself dozing in his beloved lawn chair, a warn down puppy snoozing comfortably on his chest when Mick comes back outside, dressed for work. The officer wakes to find Mick crouched next to him, scratching the ears of the fast-asleep dog still nestled nice and safe. In his half-asleep state, Len smiles at the view he notices, and Mick once again echoes the gesture, his hand coming to rest on Len’s arm for just a moment. As though it was something he did every day, Mick reaches up to brush his fingers through Len’s short and slightly sweat-dampened hair and before Len even fully registers the fondness of the touch, Mick’s already on his way to work; Leaving Len perplexed, with a puppy in his arms and a warm beer at his side.


	4. Early Fall

More than anything, Len can’t stand the start of a new school year.

Young new faces with records of their own, slightly older faces with familiar routines. And the knowledge that the dryness of fall is on the horizon. Between corralling kids on-the-job and worrying about his firefighter roommate, Officer Snart is worn thin. 

Mick gets home early on a friday night–not yet dry season, and too many hands on-duty at the station. Home with a “keep your phone on just in case” in the small hours of pre-dawn. What surprises him is that he comes home to light from the living room. It’s a dull light, changing, and he’s not even into the room completely when he realizes it’s the television. Len’s in his recliner, an arm draped limply off one side while some infomercial drones on. Even Mick’s furred best friend is sound asleep at Len’s feet.

A calloused hand reaches out, brushing fingertips across Len’s cheek and just the simple touch stirs the officer from his half-upright slumber. Tough sleep-slurred, a question about the time is posed and Mick only reassures Len gently that it’s not as late as he thinks. Somehow in the course of their exchange, those fingertips end up as a whole palm against Len’s cheek, lingering before Mick finally reaches out and tugs the other man out of the recliner entirely.

Something about “it’s late” and “you need sleep” and Len’s in the doorway to his bedroom before he even realizes that he’s not in the living room any more. Confusion makes him cling a bit to Mick’s sleeve, his brow furrowed, and Mick leans in, brushing gruff lips to his roommate’s cheek and causing just enough surprise that the grip on him is relinquished. It’s moments later, when Len’s lying in his own bed and trying to fall asleep when he even realizes that yes, Mick kissed him on the cheek. 

Of course, Len doesn’t particularly sleep the rest of that night.


	5. Late Fall

A reprieve shows up in the form of Thanksgiving. It’s rare if Mick ever gets the holiday off work–this is the Midwest, and people like to deep-fry frozen turkeys, after all. By some miracle, he’s home today. 

To celebrate, Len’s pulled out all the stops. He’s even tolerating Roscoe’s presence in his house if it means he gets to have Thanksgiving with his family. He doesn’t realize that Mick fits in that “family” category for him already. Lisa notices. And every time he asks her why she’s smiling like she is, she only shakes her head and makes up some veiled excuse about being glad to have a family holiday again. Like they used to.

Courtesy of Mick, the turkey is slow-roasted in the smoker outside. Lisa bustles around the kitchen cooking other things and each time Len tries to help, she shoos him outside with a beer for Mick. He doesn’t get to help until it’s time to carve the turkey, and then he almost insists. The thing ends up being so damned huge that it takes both Len and Mick to manage; Mick holding, Len carving. 

They’re both covered in turkey grease by the time Lisa mentions something about turkey seasoning and wondering how it turned out. A subtle hint that she’d like to taste-test–a hint that soars completely over Len’s head. Instead, he ends up picking a piece off of his pile of carvings and passing it to Mick, hands to mouth. Somehow, the tip of his thumb ends up in Mick’s mouth, if only briefly, and Len doesn’t realize he’s staring until his roommate’s expression turns into a wide grin. The rest of the turkey is carved with a series of grumbles.

After dinner, the four of them end up in the living room. It’s Lisa who commandeers Len’s recliner, and he doesn’t put up much of a fight. When Roscoe takes over the other and sits watching the game, Len decides it’s better if he helps Mick with dishes. Lisa, crocheting a scarf–it’s an orange scarf, her gift to Mick, since he’s always complaining about needing a warm scarf–quips that since he didn’t help earlier, it would be a great idea if he helped now.

A still-grumbling Len ends up in the kitchen with Mick, rinsing dishes. Rinsing dishes turns into having a sink way too full of suds, and soon a particularly enthusiastic drop of the last pot into the sink ends with them both covered in soapy dishwater. Mick is the first to grab a towel, chuckling as he does, and goes to dry off Len’s face-full of suds. Just his luck. They both end up laughing, and it’s only when Roscoe wanders in, asking about the noise and seeing if they needed help, when Len realizes just how close he and Mick are standing. Close enough that Roscoe turns on his heel and walks right back out to the living room.

Len leaves the room as well with a muffled excuse of needing to change.


	6. Winter

Though he doesn’t admit it, nights when Mick is on-duty at the firehouse are often filled with the background noise of Len’s police scanner. 

Especially this winter. It’s been dry, even for Missouri, and the midst of Winter Break leaves Len with little else than to lounge in his recliner, catching up on some light reading–suggestions from Mr. Mardon had finally piqued his interest–with a not-so-puppy snoring next to his seat. Len’s blissfully warm beneath a blanket and thinking of heading to bed when he hears the call on the scanner.

A house-fire, probably electrical. Out of habit, he clicks the volume a bit louder. It’s Mick’s voice that answers the call, an affirmative that his company will head to the scene. Len’s intent to go to bed early turns into a restless few hours of waiting. Relief is expected when a call goes out to report the situation resolved, the fire put out–but it’s not Mick’s voice.

It’s not Mick’s voice when the firefighter on the radio reports a severe injury of one of the company, who is being rushed to the hospital. Len doesn’t hear the badge number, he’s too busy rushing to throw his coat on and grab his keys. It’s always Mick that radios out for his company, and if something’s happened, something serious–

Len doesn’t want to think about serious. 

The door of the house slams shut behind him and Len damn near jogs to his car–the DARE car’s easier, most people give him the right-of-way when he’s driving it. Not that the streets were too busy after midnight in Central. It’s his plan to go to the Fire Station first, just in case. There’s always a chance it’s not Mick. Always a chance that he’s overreacting and nothing’s wrong. Better to be safe than sorry.

Every ounce of him hopes and prays that it’s not Mick, selfish as that might be.

In his haste, Len almost misses the Fire Station. A near-slam on the breaks and he’s pulling into the lot, barely shutting his car off before he’s up the front steps and into the building. Len doesn’t have to sign in, they know him here. After all, they’ve seen him at barbecues and school events. Everyone knows Officer Snart, the local senior DARE Officer. And everyone knows that he lives with Lieutenant Rory.

Len finds the company, minus two, in the garage, talking quietly. Murmurs of “Mercy Hospital” and “Rory” and Len almost bolts back out the door then and there. If not for the hand on his arm and a familiar voice asking if he was listening to the police scanner again–and quickly correcting that of course he was listening to the police scanner again. A quick turn and Len’s knees go weak when he sees a certain soot-blackened face and a tired smile.

Sense of reason leaves him entirely in his relief, and Len grabs Mick’s face in both of his hands and kisses him hard on the mouth. Len feels strong hands settle at the small of his back before he pulls away, soot all over himself now as well, seeing as Mick’s still half in uniform. The DARE officer clears his throat, starts to pull away because the Fire Station really isn’t the best place to finally realize that you’re in love with your best friend, but Mick doesn’t let him.

Instead, Mick wraps his arms around Len entirely and kisses him again, long enough that the company notices. The firefighter pulls back to see a flustered roommate and hear the teasing whistles of the rest of his company. After all, they’d been waiting for those two to just _hook up already **for the love of god**_ for months now.


End file.
